Roger Craig praises Harbaugh (again)

Submitted by The Geek on

Saw this in the local rag this morning (LINK): 

 

Former Davenport Central football star Roger Craig was back in the Quad-Cities recently and noted that all of his old teams seem to be in transition right now. Davenport Central, the University of Nebraska and the San Francisco 49ers all have made recent coaching changes.

Craig was especially disheartened to see Jim Harbaugh leave the 49ers to become the head coach at Michigan. “Harbaugh is the guy that built the culture there …’’ he said. “We weren’t any good for about 10 years before he got there. We were in a dark hole. He took us out of the dark hole and gave us light.

I’m really afraid they’re going to go backward now.’’ Craig said he liked Harbaugh because his players played hard, like they were “starving’’ for victory. “You have to play like you’re starving. Not hungry. Hungry isn’t good enough …’’

Craig said. “When you’re starving, you’ll do whatever is necessary to get your food. You want your players to play like they’re starving.’’

Happy Mother's Day, and Go Blue!

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33TOPE

May 10th, 2015 at 12:37 PM ^

I am so pumped up for the future not sure my expectations are really fair because they my be a bit extreme. In Harbaugh I trust, I believe if anyone has higher expectations its probably him. Who am I kidding we all have the same expectations.

Joined: 12/30/2011

MGoPoints: 76

Ronnie Kaye

May 10th, 2015 at 12:41 PM ^

The uniformity of support Harbaugh has among 49ers fans is remarkable. Often there will be a faction that will always support whatever an organization does but it seems universal that Jed York and Trent Baalke are assholes who screwed this up big time.

Joined: 05/09/2015

MGoPoints: 104

MichiganMAN47

May 10th, 2015 at 1:13 PM ^

He is a lot more likable than the media tries to portray him, and he was extremely successful there. Everyone knows the 49ers made a big mistake. The owners put friendship and cronyism ahead of running a successful business.

Joined: 02/24/2015

MGoPoints: 3216

M Fanfare

May 10th, 2015 at 1:20 PM ^

No kidding. My uncle has been a 49ers fan since the 1950s, and he was really sad when they let Harbaugh go. He's a Californian and has always supported the Pac-8/10/12 against the Big Ten, but he says he's now going to root for Michigan because he likes and respects Harbaugh so much.

Joined: 08/17/2008

MGoPoints: 4715

LSAClassOf2000

May 10th, 2015 at 1:03 PM ^

“You have to play like you’re starving. Not hungry. Hungry isn’t good enough …’’ Craig said. “When you’re starving, you’ll do whatever is necessary to get your food. You want your players to play like they’re starving.’’

I will admit that my eagerness to begin the Harbaugh era in earnest with actual football just increased markedly after reading that quote. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

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timmons15

May 10th, 2015 at 1:51 PM ^

for some Michigan Football!  Jim is already changing the culture of the program...can't wait to see the product that he puts out on the field in September!

Joined: 08/29/2013

MGoPoints: 103

chatster

May 10th, 2015 at 2:36 PM ^

While walking around the Michigan sports complex during Graduation Weekend, waiting for the start of the baseball game against Iowa, I saw a couple of Michigan football players doing sprint training on the track at Ferry Field. (I didn’t recognize them at first, but knew from their team-issued shirts that they weren’t on the track team or just a couple of undergrads working out. They’re not starters, but they could probably make for pretty good additions to Jabrill Peppers and Dennis Norfleet on a 4 x 100 M relay team, if the football team had one.)
 
I overheard a conversation the players were having with someone who asked about the differences they were experiencing with the new coaching staff.  From what I could hear, they both said that they’d never worked as hard and that the entire team would be staying in Ann Arbor all summer for what the players considered to be their own mandatory and optional workouts.

Joined: 09/14/2010

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RockinLoud

May 10th, 2015 at 3:58 PM ^

Man I literally cannot wait until football season, I have anxiety I'm so just pumped for it. What I hope we'll see, and what I think I get the biggest enjoyment from while watching, is seeing both of our lines just completely dominate and manhandle the other team. Been a looooong time since we've had that, and I can't wait to see it again!

Joined: 10/12/2008

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